Environmental Impact Investments in Europe: Where Are We Headed?

This chapter explores the environmental impact on investment panorama in light of the new European regulatory process on sustainable finance and of worldwide impact on investing practices. The main results can be summarised as follows. First, the emergent European regulation on sustainable finance seems to be going in the direction of impact investing. Second, green bonds and environmental funds fall within the perimeter of impact investing, while crowdfunding shows similarities with sustainable finance. Third, the European panorama—pioneering in regulation—does not appear equally innovative from the perspective of financial models. Environmental impact investing is experiencing a delay in Europe in terms of innovative financial models such as environmental impact bonds (EIBs). Finally, the study suggests that European governments should consider EIBs within models able to finance environmental strategies.